Dry, warm and dusty. A lot of mosquitos. That's how the second round of the Russian Cross-Country Championship - Baja "Karelia-90" - started today.

The weather forecast promised rain for the 2nd part of the day, however neither in the afteroon nor in the evening was there even a slightest hint for a cloud which could pour at least some drops of moisture. It was good for spectators taking sunbathes along the route. Meanwhile, it would have been much better for sportsmen to drive after a little rain - there wouldn't be so much dust in the air. That's the case in the service area also.

So, hospitable Karelia (or Karjala - just to mention - the roads in this part of Russia are quite similar to those which are used for famous finnish rallies, though for raids are chosen not so smooth ones of course) met our team this morning. The administrative checks and scrutineering brought no bad surprises, and 28 crews were allowed to start in the Championship classification, with 11 more in the RAF Cup. The crew of Evgeniy Pavlov (co-driver Sergey Ananov, #220, class T2B) made it to the start in the very last moment (we met him coming up to the scrutineering just while we were going to the start).

Despite its short distance, the 4 kilometres long prologue opened the list of retirements. The crew of Victor Volikov (co-driver his son Anatoliy Volikov, #203, class T2B) stopped just a few metres after the start due to electric problems on their car. And the car #230 (crew Alexey Smolyavskiy/Andrey Kharakhnin) spectacularly (with smoke and hissing sounds) lost all oil from the engine at the finish line. 

 

In the absence of Boris Gadasin (here he's present as a coach and team leader), main favourite in terms of speed was the newcomer to rally-raids and the famous master of Karelian roads in rallying Andrey Zhigunov (co-driver his brother Igor Ter-Oganes'yants, #214, class T1). The rally driving style applied by him to a Superproduction vehicle brought him a 7-seconds advantage over Ruslan Misikov (co-driver Sergey Talantsev, #200, class T1). Third came Alexander Mironenko (co-driver Sergey Lebedev, #209, class T1) - plus one second behind the second spot.  

In the T2 category it was Konstantin Zhil'tsov (co-driver Konstantin Mescheryakov, #205) who took the lead after the short superspecial stage. The G-Force Motorsport crew of Alexey Denisov/Dmitriy Kozhukhov (#219) came second, just 3 seconds behind.   Alexey Denisov: «We haven't quite yet understood how we've been driving. We started, than all but missed a junction, though didn't break the car. And soon the track was over: we'd just gained the speed, and there it came the finish line...»

The crew of Vladimir Frolov and Denis Tsarev (#204) took third place (+7 seconds). By the way - specially to couch these guys did the reigning Russian rally champion Alexander Zheludov come here. The second G-Force Motorsport crew of Alexander Oleinikov/Alexey Kuzmitch (#202) holds 4th place in the T2 category (+10 seconds).

 

G-Force Motorsport's new car - Isuzu D-Max - is quite on pace, driven by the crew of Ruslan Furundzhi/Maxim Ivanov (№215, Т2B). The crew gives much of positive feedback about the Isuzu's performance. Now they're 7th in the T2 category, but are planning to catch up with the leaders tomorrow.  

There're 450 kilometres of special stages to be held on Saturday, so nothing is decided yet...

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Provisional unofficial results of the SSS - kareliasss.xls 61.50 Kb

Igor Chervonny